FA Cup 4^th Round
and a visit of Blackpool who for the afternoon are swapping their seaside town
for ours. I wonder if any of their fans will go and check out Weston Shore
whilst they’re here?


Most of the talk on social media around Saints this week has
not been about this game but has instead been about the transfer window and
they seemingly never-ending quest for a player who can actually put the ball in
the net with some regularity. Having brought Janny B back from his loan spell
at Villa, we recruited another defender this week in the shape of James Bree
from Nathan Jones former club, Luton Town.  Bree is primarily a right back who can also
operate on the right of a three-man defence, so it seems that this hybrid
system that we are failing to master at the moment, is here to stay.  Bree was out of contract at the end of the
season, so the signing for £750 grand is pretty low risk.  It does raise a question about the other right
backs in our squad. We don’t really need cover for the rest of this season
because we have KWP and we also have Ainsley Maitland-Niles, even with Tino
Livramento still being injured. It wouldn’t surprise me if this is to cover the
fact that KWP will probably be off in the summer, regardless of what division
we will be playing in next season.



Like ourselves, Blackpool are struggling in their respective
division, which is of course the Championship.  Up until a couple of weeks ago they were
managed by ex-Skate manager Michael Appleton but he was sacked and they have
appointed managerial stalwart Mick McCarthy who despite having been around
forever, remains very likable for the neutral. It’s actually McCarthy‘s first
game in charge of Blackpool because last weeks’ league game was off so he will
be looking to make an impression today.



With the Newcastle semi-final on the horizon next Tuesday, it
will be interesting to see how close to the first team line-up Nathan Jones
goes. I cannot imagine that he will not take the opportunity to play the likes
of Joe Aribo and others who haven’t played much recently. Maybe there will be
an opportunity for one of the B team youngsters like Jimmy Jay Morgan or
Dominic Ballard that you could also make arguments for the likes of Sekou Mara
and Mislav Orsic to start.



Talking of Jimmy Jay Morgan, he made some headlines during
the week by turning down the offer of his first full professional contract. On
the one hand, he said that he wanted to play first team football which is
understandable but on the other hand, it was said that Arsenal was his
preferred choice of club where he will 100% be further down the pecking order
that he is here. I can think of Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe who have come
through the Arsenal Academy to 1st team level and every other youngster like
Martinelli or Saliba have been brought in. However, if I was a young striker scoring
every week for the B team and I was watching Saints strikers totally failing to
hit the net, I’d be pretty frustrated as well. Wait it out kid, you will
certainly get a chance.


In the event, Jones spring a surprise leaving out JWP.  There are starts for Perraud, Mara, Orsic and
Romeo Lavia.  ABK has returned from
injury and the only player on show that is probably guaranteed to start against
Newcastle is Lyanco.  Captain for the day
is Big Willy.


Away we go in Blackpool are sitting off and inviting Saints
to have possession and we’re nt used to that so initially we don’t look like we
know what to do.  Eventually we work an
opening for Orsic about 25 yards out they clips it with his right foot just
wide of the left-hand post. Decent start.



There’s a bit of an incident after 10 minutes when the ball
gets rolled to the Blackpool goalkeeper to clear and Mara goes to close him
down but for some reason he launches a double footed dropkick in an attempt to
block the clearance. The keeper clears the ball and then makes out that Mara
has made contact with him. Embarrassingly, Premier League referee Craig Pawson
decides to book Mara I assume for leaving the pitch without permission.  Fucking goalkeeper was a disgrace however and
thankfully makes a full recovery.


Lavia picks up the ball in midfield and pings it over the
full back to where Edozie chests it down and Hamilton barges into the back of
him to give us a free kick. With no JWP starting, Orsic and Perraud stand over
the ball and with the angle naturally favouring the left footer, it’s no
surprise that Orsic dummies taking it and Perraud absolutely lashes it,
straight through the wall straight into the bottom corner of the net. Get in.

Having taken the lead, Saints of course can’t do things the
easy way and Lavia gets dispossessed on the edge of the Blackpool
penalty and Blackpool spring a break on us.  Poveda breaks up the left hand side and knocks
the ball into Yates, who just has AMN in front of him and his side footed
effort is acrobatically turned away in Big Willy Style.



With the corner survived, the half plays out in similar
fashion as before. Lavia and Aribo are bossing the midfield and Saints are
looking pretty competent and comfortable.  Most of Saints attacking play is coming
through Edozie and he takes on and beats two players as he makes his way to the
penalty area before laying the ball back to the edge of the box dead central
where Elyounoussi smashes it but it hits a defender.



Half time and no changes in personnel but as we’re winning and
playing reasonably, there of course is a tactical change because with the
greatest of respect, why not?  Aribo
seems to have pushed further forward so now it’s just Lavia as the sole
defensive midfielder.  We then switch off
big style as Blackpool play a long ball down the line and we are all over the
place and for some reason, waiting for a free kick with ABK is on the deck. The
ball looks like it’s running out for a throw and everybody fucking stops but
there is no flag and Yates puts Poveda clean through and with just Big Willy to
beat he tries to chip and no one chips Big Willy.  The ball goes back to Poveda who has the whole
goal to aim at and a Big Willy coming straight at him, deliberately and
accurately passes it into the Northam End.



Our first real attack of the half starts with Perraud out of
the left.  He darts infield, plays a 1-2 with
Mara and smashes it past the keeper to make it 2-0.  Nice goal to be fair but I can’t imagine Mick
McCarthy will be terribly happy with the defending and lack of pressure on the ball.


With it now 2-0, it’s safe to bring on Theo Walcott who
replaces Orsic. Immediately Aribo proves he’s still out there by driving
forward from midfield and after a 1-2 with Edozie, his shot is blocked for a
corner.  It’s looking comfortable for
us out there and then of course, it isn’t as we give the ball away in midfield,
Bowler goes past Lavia and a simple ball square by Yates finds Patino who
scores with ease which is what tends to happen when you leave a player
completely unmarked on the penalty spot.  Now this is a lot more difficult than it
should’ve been.



Saints and into panic mode with the odd break forward out of
the shambles and from one of these Walcott runs at the defence with all the
conviction of a 34-year-old with cheese for hamstrings and his eventual shot hits
a defender and a flicks up in the air and comes down on top of the goal.
Surprisingly, he hasn’t injured himself.

We have totally lost control of the game in midfield with
Elyounoussi and Aribo now not helping helping out Lavia at all so to correct
this, Jones makes three like for like subs which don’t, with the greatest of
respect, actually correct anything at all on the face of it.  Diallo is on for Lavia and there’s two charges
upfront with Edozie and Mara being replaced by Adam Armstrong and Che Adams.



Diallo immediately gives away free kick 35 yards out because
we are so good at defending them and for some reason there is a load of
handbags.  In comes the free kick, ABK
heads out for a corner and up comes the goalkeeper. Over it comes and another
corner… and another one which is headed goalwards and caught and claimed by Big
Willy who lays on the ground and like any 41 year old, he’s gonna take a while
to get up.  Final whistle.

Jesus that was hard work. I’m not necessarily talking about
Saints finding Blackpool hard work but it was a tough game to watch.  The first half was quite slow paced with
Saints pretty much in control throughout and leading through Perraud’s free-kick
but not really creating any other chances.  The second half we made more difficult for
ourselves when we lost control of the midfield but having gone 2-0 up, we
really should’ve coasted through the rest of the game. Instead of that, we
contrived to give away a shit goal and then resorted basically to booting it
anywhere and let a very limited Blackpool side have a decent shout of getting a
replay.



It was a difficult game for Nathan Jones because his focus was
very much on Tuesdays game at Newcastle, but the bottom line is that we got
through. tThe tactical change in midfield  at half-time didn’t help us and we were
worse in the second half as a result. Also feel that the substitutions weren’t
really geared to regaining control when Blackpool got the goal back. We were
still too light in midfield as two of the substitutions were just like for like
subs up front. 


With the greatest of respect, Jones also did his usual and
made a twat at himself in the press conference afterwards, saying that the fans
wanted us to push forward against Newcastle even when we only had 10 men and we’d
probably be out of the tie.  For some
reason he felt it necessary to come up with this straw man argument to prove a
point that didn’t need proving.  So, you
know more about football than the average fan Nathan? Well, with the greatest
of respect, it would be slightly fucking worrying if you didn’t.



Today was a game for fringe players to either show why they
should be in the team or to prove that the manager is right to not have them in
the team. Romain Perraud certainly came into the first category, scoring both
goals and making a mockery of the recent decisions by Nathan Jones to leave him
out in favour of a hybrid left winger/left wing back which has never really
worked. Maybe if we play a proper left back and a proper right back, we might
stop so many crosses coming in from the wings. It was also promising
performance in midfield by Romeo Lavia who played for a good 85 minutes before
coming off. The manager needs confidence that Romeo can get through 90 minutes
and I suspect Romeo needs that himself. Lyanco had a decent game at centre back
next to the unsurprisingly rusty ABK and we of course had a bit of Big Willy in
goal and it was nice for him to be captain for the day and finish on the
winning side.



Joe Aribo had a strange match. I thought he was very good in
the first half dropping deep to pick up the ball and constantly wanting to be
involved but in the second half he seemed to get moved further forward and
struggled to get on the ball and he kind of just existed with the game going on
around him. Elyounoussi, who was stationed next to him for most of the game was
his usual mix of tidy play to keep the ball and moving it sideways or backwards
but was the same as he always is when it came to trying to pass the ball
forwards. His passes simply never connect and just get intercepted because they
are usually so telegraphed and under hit.



With the signing of James Bree, I kind of feel that Ainsley
Maitland-Niles should really be packed off back to Arsenal if we can do so. The
guy played like he was on something again and really doesn’t look interested.  He does good things at times nut most of the time, it looks like it’s all just too much effort for him.  It’s one of the Premier League‘s great mysteries why AMN is still on the books
of Arsenal.



Up front saw a slightly disappointing performance by Mislav Orsic who
really struggled to get into the game and was wayward with his passing
throughout.  Patience is needed thought
because he’s having to get used to a different style of football at the age of
30.  Many have failed before and we just
have to hope he can adapt though I had hoped to
see better today though, against Championship opposition.  Sekou
Mara had obviously been told that he should’ve put a tackle in on Emi Martínez
when we played Villa the other week and this saw his ridiculous two footed lunge in
front of the goalkeeper that got him a yellow card. Other than that, he did his usual
and buzzed around but barely got a touch of the ball, always seeming to get
there just a little bit too late. 
His main contribution was of course though, the short pass back to Perraud for the second
goal.


Blackpool and Mick McCarthy have more important fish to fry
this season for their fans were excellent and his team worked very hard in his first
game so I hope they stay up.  I imagine that Mick will be having a word about bravery in the wall and trying to chip the keeper when clean through.



Through to the 5th round we go, where having played Crystal Palace
and Blackpool, we hope to be drawn against another one of the teams that we
beat on the route to winning the cup in 1976, so that leaves either Aston Villa
or West Brom or Bradford City…. All of whom are out, so I guess that just
leaves Manchester United and to be honest, we don’t wanna play those wankers
just yet. (UPDATE: We have the winners of Luton and Grimsby at home in
what of course, with the greatest of respect to Grimsby, might be the Nathan Jones
Welsh Mining Village Derby)


Next up of course is the Carabao Cup Semi-Final second leg
against Newcastle. I repeat the words of Kevin Keegan once more “I would love
it if we could beat them, love it”.